musty old books, blood, and sunlight
by wild wolf free17
Summary: Anthology of Xander&Spike themed drabbles.  Mostly AU, slash, and angst.
1. Thrice

Each of these stands alone. Separate ratings and warnings.

* * *

><p><strong>Title<strong>: Thrice

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; just for fun.

**Warnings**: AU for season two's "School Hard"

**Pairings**: Spike/Drusilla

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 230

**Point** **of** **view**: third

* * *

><p>All a vampire ever longs for is one good day. To meet the Slayer and drain her, snap her pretty little neck, break her into beautiful, scattered pieces… one good day.<p>

He is no different from the rest, though he can boast honestly of two Slayer kills. Not even Angelus could've claimed that before he went and got himself cursed with a soul.

Drusilla is injured, and fading fast, so Spike brings her to the Hellmouth, to Sunnydale, in hopes of healing her. It's pure coincidence that the poofter is there, brooding about, skulking in the shadows and helping the Slayer.

She's a pretty little thing, the current Slayer, blond and tiny—the poofter's type. She's got fire, like the Slayer from New York, though he doubts she'll be much of a fight.

He watches her for a few nights, gets a feel for her, then slinks into the Parent-Teacher Night. She's young, still learning—can't even sense he's there. So he ghosts around the party for a bit, blending in seamlessly; he's not that rash fledge who causes brawls anymore.

Spike's learned a lot in his hundred-plus years. He pads up behind her, no more than a whisper. He's never killed in the midst of a crowd, not like this. It's a rush.

His hands snake out and snap her neck in-between her heartbeats, and he's gone.

That's three.


	2. a dream the world breathed sleeping

**Title**: a dream the world breathed sleeping and forgot

**Disclaimer**: not my characters

**Warnings**: future!fic

**Pairings**: pre-Drusilla/Dawn

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 170

**Point of view**: third

**Prompt**: Drusilla/Dawn, the key is singing to Dru

* * *

><p>She hears the stars scream the day her sweet Key is birthed from the Slayer's blood. And then she hears the Key itself, <em>come, Mummy, come make me yours forever and ever<em>.

A handspan of years later, after Sunnydale collapses onto the First (that foolish, pretty dark thing), she follows the Key back home, to a school on her native soil, and there she watches.

So magnificent, green sparkles lighting up the midnight sky, laughing with friends as they walk back to the dorms. Made of magic and blood, older than anything but Gaea.

There are wards around the Key; she can taste the red witch and the Watcher on the air. Two of the more powerful Magicks she's ever met, and the Key would be safe from anyone else.

And the Key catches her eye, freezes for a moment, and sends her companions on without her. "Drusilla," the gateway embodied in a darling girl breathes. "Oh, holy fuck."

The Key sings, _yours yours yours_.

Drusilla holds out a hand.


	3. warrior ascendant

**Title**: warrior ascendant

**Disclaimer**: not my characters

**Warnings**: AU for Prophecy Girl; character death

**Pairings**: mentions of Angel/Buffy and Xander/Buffy

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 200

**Point of view**: third

**Prompt**: Buffy, ensemble, what if Xander was the slayer?

* * *

><p>He compresses and breathes and cusses and shouts and cries. Finally, the bloodsucker pulls him off Buffy, too still and so wet. She looks so very tiny.<p>

"We have to go," the creep, the _fucker_, says. "The Master is loose."

Xander shrugs him off. When the cold hand touches his shoulder again, Xander lunges up, spins around, and shoves him away.

The vampire goes flying. All the way across the chamber, slams into the wall.

Xander stares at his palms. "What the fuck?"

Knowledge floods him, along with adrenaline and a slow, simmering rage. The Master is loose. Buffy is dead. Willow and Giles and the world are all in danger, and – for whatever reason – he's been chosen. He's been _Chosen_.

"Carry her," he orders Angel, stalking towards the tunnel out. He won't leave her here; after the Master is dead, and all his minions, Buffy will have a warrior's funeral.

He memorizes the Master's stench and doesn't look back at the vampire carrying the corpse of the woman they both love.

It is time to hunt. In the back of his mind, a hyena laughs and a very long dead girl bares in her teeth in a snarling smile.


	4. Ashes and Dust

**Title**: Ashes and Dust  
><strong>Disclaimer<strong>: not my characters; just for fun.  
><strong>Warnings<strong>: spoilers for "The Harvest"  
><strong>Pairings<strong>: Xander/Jesse  
><strong>Rating<strong>: PG  
><strong>Point<strong> **of** **view**: third  
><strong>Wordcount<strong>: 100

* * *

><p>He doesn't think of it at first, how easily Willow moves on. She was never as close to Jesse as he was. Buffy's another girl, someone she can giggle and gossip with, someone she has more in common with than she ever has with Xander.<p>

He misses Jesse so much it burns. He has a hole inside, a gaping, empty place that Jesse's laughter and Jesse's smile used to fill. Long, slow nights in summer, full of secret touches and lingering glances are gone, vampires in their place.

Jesse became dust and Xander inhaled him.

Jesse's gone and Xander's alone.


	5. endless skies and neverending light

**Title**: endless skies and never-ending light

**Disclaimer**: not my characters

**Warnings**: none

**Pairings**: none

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 125

**Point** **of** **view**: third

**Prompt**: Buffy & author's choice, "What's Heaven like?"

* * *

><p>Dawn hears her sometimes, only when she's just waking up, before she realizes and quiets herself.<p>

The first few times, Dawn didn't know what to do, so she did nothing.

But this time, this time Dawn tries to silently walk down the hall—Spike's been giving her lessons—and sneaks into Buffy's room.

"Dawn," Buffy whispers, "what's wrong?"

"Nothing with me," Dawn whispers back. She crawls into the bed and under the covers, turning to face her sister. "Why do you keep crying?"

Buffy rubs at her face, the tears still glistening there. "I'm not crying, Dawnie," she says.

Dawn snuggles in, wrapping her arms around Buffy. "Tell me about Heaven," she murmurs.

Blinking away more tears, Buffy mutters, "Okay," and links her fingers with Dawn's.


	6. survivor

**Title**: survivor

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; just for fun.

**Warnings**: spoilers for season five

**Pairings**: none

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 100

**Point** **of** **view**: third

* * *

><p>None of them have ever thought about it, he knows, but he should be very, very dead—a hammer that knocked around a god did no more than give him a few sore bones.<p>

None of them ever asked him about it, ever gave him a second glance. Ever pondered for a moment what it might mean.

It wasn't the first time Death passed him by, looked the other way. Wasn't the first time he wished Death weren't so blind, either.

But he keeps living, keeps surviving. Keeps getting back to his feet. And he is tired.

So very tired.


	7. muzzled and caged

**Title**: muzzled and caged

**Disclaimer**: not my characters; just for fun.

**Warnings**: spoilers and AU for season four

**Pairings**: none

**Rating**: PG

**Wordcount**: 250

**Point** **of** **view**: third

* * *

><p>They seem to think that the pain will be enough to stop him. They forget, if they ever knew, that pain is something a body can become accustomed to—and they don't know that for the first twenty years of his unlife, he belonged to Angelus. No human invention will ever equal to the pain Angelus taught him to enjoy.<p>

Once he learns the triggers, the tiny piece of metal and electricity is easy to circumvent. He is not the creature he was before, but neither is he helpless. He hunts for fresh blood, but he leaves the humans alive, and the Slayer never knows.

She is simple to fool, only giving faith to what she sees. The Watcher should know better—a grandchilde of Angelus, felled by scientists? But it's been so long since a _true_ reign of Angelus, the Council has forgotten. Those months of madness culminating in Acathla were _not_ Angelus, his mad, brilliant grandsire, only a pale shadow.

He lets them believe he lives by their sufferance, never giving a hint that the muzzle in his brain only offers a slight hesitation anymore. He is learning to navigate around it.

Four months after his escape, he kills a man on the street, and the chip doesn't give so much as a jolt. He feasts that night, painting himself in blood.

He leaves Sunnydale after cleaning up the mess. He'll be back, though, to teach the girl-child Slayer why a _true_ hunter never leaves an enemy chained.


	8. long live the king

**Title**: long live the king

**Fandom**: Supernatural/Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the Series

**Disclaimer**: not my characters

**Warnings**: AU for Supernatural; future!fic for BtVS and AtS

**Pairings**: none, really

**Rating**: PGish

**Wordcount**: 275

**Point** **of** **view**: third

**Prompt**: Buffy/Supernatural, Drusilla on Sam, The stars told her about him

* * *

><p>The stars whisper so pretty about the king to be, the boy born for Lucifer's fire, to burn and to scorch, to raze all that is for what will come.<p>

_glorious glorious glorious is the king,_ she tells Daddy and her darling William.

_brightly burning, beautiful boy,_ she murmurs into Grandmum's skin as she returns her to the night.

He is young yet, still a child, unprepared for all that he will do and be. But his potential—

The stars sing and scream, and she dances dances dances, but her Spike won't whirl with her, and Daddy and Grandmum are gone, and she is alone, the pale princess in a tower of bone, waiting waiting waiting...

_glorious is the king,_ she shouts to the dark sky as Lucifer's light pierces the night, telling all who can read the signs that he is returned, walking the world again, wings spread wide to shelter all his children from the cruel sun.

_and the Son shall burn, and the Sword tarnish, weak and frail and bleeding so pretty,_ she tells the little doll in her arms, warmth filling her from the sweet veins. _bleeding so pretty like you._

And a single short year later, the stars whisper that the king-to-be has defeated Lucifer and taken his throne, that the Sword is in his hand and by his side, and that finally, _finally, the world is ours, to remake in our image, take it and do your will, meet your king._

And she does, the last of her bloodline, she seeks him out because he will need a seer, someone who can hear the song of the stars.


	9. In the Chariot of the Sun

**Title**: In the Chariot of the Sun

**Disclaimer**: Jesse, Xander, and Willow aren't mine. Just for fun.  
><strong>Warnings<strong>: spoilers for "The Harvest"  
><strong>Pairings<strong>: mentions of Jesse/OMC  
><strong>Rating<strong>: PG13  
><strong>Wordcount<strong>: 580  
><strong>Point of view<strong>: third  
><strong>Notes<strong>: the title is a reference to Apollo's son Phaeton who thought he could control the Sun Chariot. He was wrong and he died, after nearly destroying the world.

* * *

><p>Kathryn Rochester has always loved the sun. So when her husband Marcus suggests moving to Sunnydale, California, Kathryn is all for it. She's three months pregnant, just graduated college at the head of her class, and Sunnydale is prime real estate. Marcus has a well-paying job lined up and Kathryn can stay home writing her first novel or go to work at the school as a teacher—or both, if she feels so inclined.<p>

She teaches senior English for a semester and then takes maternity leave, giving birth to a healthy son she names Benjamin.

Kathryn and Marcus are happy for a year, then she goes back to Sunnydale High. Their elderly neighbor, Eva Cenley, takes care of Benji—until the night she's found dead in her backyard, drained of blood.

Marcus had brushed off all of Kathryn's concerns about Sunnydale's high mortality rate, but now she just stares at him in silence, clutching Benji close.

The day after Eva's funeral, Kathryn learns she's pregnant again.

o0o

Years pass. Someone is found dead every day. Kathryn doesn't understand how everyone can turn a blind eye, can rationalize it all away.

She forbids Benji and Natalia from going out at night. Marcus tells her she's overprotective. She asks him how he can be so flippant—but he's at the office all the time, not at school, staring at the empty desks.

o0o

And then one day, Ben brings home a boy named Jesse. Softly introduces Jesse to her as his friend, but Kathryn can tell from how close they stand that it's more.

Jesse is polite and shy, not often meeting Kathryn's eyes. But he lights up whenever Ben smiles at him and Kathryn hides a grin.

Her boy is happy. She can't ask for more than that.

o0o

At Ben's sixteenth birthday party, Kathryn meets Jesse's best friends: Xander and Willow. They're both good kids, just like him—don't like meeting her eyes or being the center of attention. She wonders, but it just cements her suspicions. Something about this town brings out the bad side in people.

She wants to pack up her kids and Ben's boy and Jesse's friends. Get them all out of here before anything bad happens.

But a week after the party, Ben comes home crying, gasping for air. Kathryn rushes to him, grips his shoulders. "Sweetie, what's wrong?"

He just looks at her, tears dripping down his cheeks, eyes bloodshot. He trembles and folds into her, wrapping around her. "Mama," he whispers. "Jesse's gone."

She doesn't understand, but the whole story pours out: the night before, at the Bronze, there was a gang fight. Jesse was a casualty—wrong place, wrong time, Xander told Ben.

"I love him," Ben sobs on Kathryn's shoulder.

o0o

The day Talia turns fifteen, Kathryn packs up her children and they leave Sunnydale in the dust. Xander is the only one to see them off.

Kathryn's always loved the sun, but Sunnydale is a lie. No sun there—just shadows and shades, ghosts… monsters.

Talia's angry about leaving, but Ben is silent. He just sits quietly shotgun and stares out the window.

Marcus remains in Sunnydale, but he hasn't been the man Kathryn married in a long time. She isn't sorry to leave him behind.

o0o

Kathryn moves back home, lives down the street from Dad. Talia fits in at school with ease, but Ben still doesn't speak.

It'll take awhile, she knows, but her bright, shining boy will return.

He will. Some day.


	10. Temptation

**Title**: Temptation

**Disclaimer**: Not my characters. Just for fun.

**Warnings**: AU for season 2

**Pairings**: lightly implied Xander/Jesse

**Rating**: PG13

**Wordcount**: 460

**Point** **of** **view**: third

* * *

><p>Xander's tempted Fate every day of his life.<p>

How was he to know this time she'd show?

o0o

Maybe, he thinks, doing his best to glare at the stupid-ass vamp that kidnapped a friend of the Slayer, maybe it began when he overheard in the library or when Jesse died.

He's never been able to pick one.

Because—he knows himself. Can't lie when you're looking at your soul.

If Jesse hadn't died, Xander would have never fought.

o0o

He doesn't have some fucking destiny. Or witchy-powers or Watcher training or undead blood in his veins. He wasn't bit by his were-cousin and he could walk away at _any damn time_.

So why the hell does he stay? Why doesn't he run and never look back?

Because he inhaled some of Jess when he died and now he can't forget.

Can't forget the first secret shared or the first fight he ever got in for someone else. Can't forget when Jesse let him stay over with no explanation required or demanded. Can't forget his first kiss.

Can't forget the tickle in his nose or the burn in his eyes when Jesse died.

He can't forget. So he can't walk away.

o0o

Xander's tempted Fate every day of his life.

He never meant to—but Dad's a nasty drunk and makes it so easy. The words roll off his tongue and he can never apologize like he means it. The glares force themselves out of his eyes, and who is he to deny?

Every slap, every punch, every kick, every bruise, every cut—something inside him shattered a little more. He could feel the rip in his soul, jagged and gaping open.

And he wondered… he wondered… how long until his soul completely fell apart and his body just stopped working.

Xander's tempted Death, too, and it's a real fucking surprise what face It wears.

It's damned funny in the most ironic way. The vampire watches, mystified, and he can't stop laughing.

o0o

Xander doesn't have a destiny. He's not magical or trained from birth or touched by a monster.

Xander fought only for vengeance.

"You think you'll win?" he asks once he can breathe again. "You know her almost as well as I do."

Cordelia's face grins at him. For some reason, that makes him laugh even more.

o0o

Xander's tempted Fate since he was born. And finally, she's given in.

He's not magical or a watcher or a werewolf. But he does have undead blood in his veins.

And it's funny, the funniest thing he's ever heard, but he didn't become suicidal until after he died.

He can still feel how his eyes burned. But now his whole body burns and then there's nothing.


	11. Memory has left me with that name alone

Title: Memory has left me with that name alone

Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the Series

Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Landor

Warnings: spoilers for both series

Pairings: canon

Rating: PG

Wordcount: 740

Point of view: third

Note: for mynorthwind; she wanted a BtVS isoulmate's name on hand fic

* * *

><p>Not everyone is born with a name on their hand – only the lucky ones.<p>

.

When William is ten, the letter _A_ appears. Until Drusilla finds him and makes him better, stronger, faster, _A_is the only letter on his hand.

He meets Angelus, the cruelest, most beautiful thing he's ever seen, and thinks he understands. Over the first decade of his new life, the _A_ fades; after Angelus leaves, a _D_ appears, darker than the _A_had ever been.

Spike still believes he understands.

.

Alexander LeValle Harris grows up hating his name. His hand is empty; not even bumping into the most beautiful girl in the world is enough to call up a letter. (For a few months, when he was fourteen, a part of him kept expecting a _J_, followed swiftly by _e_, two _s_', and another _e_. No dice. And then Jesse is gone, and he's glad no name ever appeared. Better to have never had than to lose.)

The _W_ appears after the Master dies. Willow suddenly gets tongue-tied and blushes anytime he looks at her, and it's weird. He's already lost Jesse; he doesn't want to lose Willow, too, and not for something as stupid as the possibility that the name will be hers. Really, what are the chances? There's, like, a thousand names that start with a _w_.

.

The _i_ is next. Cordelia mocks him whenever they make out, and Willow can't even look at him. Oz doesn't seem to care, though, even when the double _l_s show up over the span of a year.

All sorts of things happen – but the biggie is definitely lying to Buffy about Willow's spell, and blowing up the school, and making out with Willow.

Xander still doesn't believe that it's Willow's name on his hand, though. He loves her, but not like that. And he's glad when she realizes that, too, though he wishes they'd figured it out before almost killing Cordelia.

.

Spike knows that he should leave Sunnydale, especially after being chipped into uselessness. The Slayer is fun to annoy, but that's all he's doing at the moment. He's no more dangerous than a kitten, and he's really getting tired of being reminded of that. But something's keeping him there.

The _D_ is long gone from his hand when the _A_shows back up. He thinks it might be Anya for just a moment, right after Buffy stares at him for fucking her.

But he feels nothing for Anya. Or Drusilla, or Buffy, or even Angel(us) anymore. He feels like the dust the sun will turn him into, and as he watches Buffy walk away, he wonders if tomorrow he should greet the sun.

He doesn't. He sits in his crypt and watches an _l_crawl its way onto his hand.

.

Xander has always liked Spike more than he liked Angel. Of course, he likes root canals and every STD in the world more than he likes Angel, so. Not saying much.

Spike was happily evil and didn't try to hide it or apologize for it. Better than Angel's brooding attempts at being a hero.

And Spike was a better housemate than Xander's parents, so there's that, too.

But Spike's a vampire. And Xander… Xander staked his best friend (on accident, but he was _holding the stake_ and _Jesse turned to dust_, and if Jesse had to die for something that wasn't his fault (and, _yes,_ Jesse was _already_ dead, Xander _knows that_) then every vampire in the world has to die.

But Buffy and Giles say Spike is useful and the good guys don't kill helpless things.

Xander wishes he could say fuck that, but he holds his tongue and waits to be proven right.

.

After Sunnydale, _William_is spelled out on Xander's hand. He waits almost three years, looking at every Will, Bill, Willy, Billy, and William twice, but none of them ever feel right.

After three years, he stops waiting. He'll either find William or he won't. That's no reason to stop living. Most of the world doesn't have a name on their hand, anyway. He's lucky to know his soulmate's name.

.

After LA, Spike wakes up. He has never been so astonished in his (un)life.

_Alexander_ is written on his hand, large as life, and just as understandable. He stares at his palm, traces the letters with his finger, and then he realizes he's _laying in sunlight_.

"Oh," he whispers, and realizes he's breathing.


	12. there but for the grace

Title: there but for the grace

Disclaimer: not my characters

Warnings: post-season 7

Pairings: mentions of Buffy/Angel, Buffy/Xander, a smidge of maybe implied Xander/Jesse

Rating: PG  
>Wordcount: 130<p>

Point of view: third

Prompt: BtVS, Xander, He played God when he told Buffy that lie in Becoming.

* * *

><p>Sometimes, he wishes he could regret it. He really, truly does. He's done a lot of bad things in his life (Jesse, Jesse, oh Jesse), but that one - he made the tough decision.<p>

He saved the world. He really, truly believes that. Buffy would've held back. Angelus would've won, and Angel might've come back just in time to watch the world die.

Was it his choice to make?

Xander looks at Buffy, and then around at the room full of baby slayers, all watching Buffy like she's something amazing. (She is. A part of him will always love her, and look at her like she's sixteen and perfect.)

Even if it wasn't his choice, he made it, and the world is still here.

He'll never regret it.


	13. Xander's type

Title: Xander's type

Fandom: Supernatural/Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Disclaimer: not my characters

Warnings: AU for both series; post-BtVS and I know nothing of the comics

Pairings: pre-Jo/Xander

Rating: PG

Wordcount: 85

Point of view: third

Prompt: Buffy/Supernatural, Xander/Jo, the need to fight evil things.

* * *

><p>Xander's type is girls not even half his size who can kick his ass. This one, tiny and blonde and <em>loud <em>reminds him so much of Buffy it hurts.

But she's not Buffy. She's sharp and hard in ways Buffy wasn't until the end, and she holds that rifle on him until Xander passes every test, and then she smiles at him, all dangerous and lovely, and she says, "Jo."

"Xander," he says, and already knows he'll die for her, if she'd let him.


	14. let's let a little be

Title: let's let a little be

Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Adrienne Rich

Warnings: takes place just before Buffy's first ep

Pairings: mentions of Buffy/Angel

Rating: PG

Wordcount: 395

Point of view: third

Prompt: BtVS/AtS, Future!Willow+Angel, She has news for him.

* * *

><p>She approaches on his second night in Sunnydale. He doesn't hear, smell, or see her coming - she's just suddenly in front of him, bright green eyes and snow white hair, even though she looks like she can't be more than 30.<p>

"Angel," she says warmly. "Wow, you look so good." She laughs. "I guess that's not a surprise, though."

He backs up. "Who are you?" he asks.

She straightens. "We haven't met yet," she says. "And I - I've tried everything else. This is the last resort."

That does not sound good. He gets ready to attack or flee and she holds up a hand. "I'm not here to fight, Angel," she says earnestly. "I'm here to warn you."

She takes a deep breath, exhales slowly, and says, "You're going to fall in love with the Slayer. You _cannot_ let it go anywhere. Even if feels like your insides are being torn out, don't kiss her, don't flirt with her, and never ever have sex with her."

He blinks at her. "What?"

And the woman reaches for him, grabbing his hand. "You're a good guy, Angel, and the Slayer's one of the best people I've ever known. But it starts here, in Sunnydale. And I've seen how it ends." Bleakly, she repeats, "I've tried everything else."

"How do I know I can trust you?" Angel asks, because he really doesn't. He doesn't trust anyone, not even Whistler.

"You just spent decades eating rats because you have a soul," she says. "Your last childe was Sam Lawson. You feel guilt for everything Angelus did even though it wasn't you." She smiles sadly and drops his hand. "You'll trust me because you're terrified that I'm right when I say the world will die if you don't."

She nods firmly. "When you see the me-that-belongs-here, don't react. She's… she's so young, Angel. She won't have any answers."

The woman steps back, wind rising around her. "I really hope this works," she confesses. "If it doesn't…" And she's gone, as silently as she arrived.

Angel blinks and then he listens as hard as he can. Nothing. He hurries to his apartment and stays holed up for three days, until he has to act to warn the Slayer.

With the white-haired woman's words ringing in his head, Angel doesn't flirt with the girl.

He hopes it's the right thing to do.


	15. reach for the top of the sky

Title: reach for the top of the sky

Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Supernatural

Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Carly Simon

Warnings: goes AU during SN season 5 and post-season 7 BtVS

Pairings: pre-Jo/Faith

Rating: PG

Wordcount: 400

Point of view: third

Prompt: BtVS/Supernatural, Jo/Faith, Faith kind of has a thing about tiny vicious blonde girls

* * *

><p>She's always liked blondes. She tried so hard to impress B in the early days, but B didn't buy it for very long, and then - well, things got a little fucked up.<p>

Then prison, and then The First, and things are better now. B's a sister, like all Slayers are sisters, and Faith's fine with that. And, yeah, so she fantasizes a little, what of it? B knows that slaying makes 'em all horny and hungry.

So anyway, Red's alarm system pinged the middle of Bumfuck, Nowhere, as the congruence (or somethin' like that?) of some mystical whammy thing, and Faith just happened to be the closest. She's got a charm she'll have to drop blood on if things go sideways and she needs help, but she's one of the Two – there ain't really much she and B can't handle, these days.

Or, well, so she thought.

.

"What the fuckin' fuck?" the superstrong brunette hottie says, staring past Jo with wide eyes.

"Stare later, run now!" Jo shouts, grabbing the woman's arm and tugging at her.

The black dog on steroids is howling as its tree-trunk sized legs eat up the ground. She's pretty sure it's one of Crowley's experiments, but she'd need one of the angels to be sure, and they're all busy with the boys somewhere, so –

"Run!" she shouts again, and decides not to fight when the superstrong hottie scoops her up and books it.

.

"Faith," she says as she sets the blonde even smaller than B down.

"Jo," the blonde says. "Here's what I know."

.

Fire's a pretty good go-to, but Faith summons some uber-powerful good witch, who de-magic's the black dog and he goes back to being a medium-sized mutt that Jo –

Well, okay, yeah, her heart melts, and there's no such thing as bad dogs. She makes sure to send word to the boys, too, because they love dogs even more than she does, and it'd be nice if one of them punched Crowley right in his smirking mouth.

"So," Faith says, leaning against Jo's car. "Where to next, JoJo?"

Jo smiles at her, the dog (named Hunter by Jo) frolicking around her legs. "Well, there's a poltergeist in Tulsa acting up, if that's not too small fry for a Slayer?"

Faith slowly drags her gaze from Jo's beat-up boots to her eyes. "Nothin's too small fry for me, babe," she says.


End file.
